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This job description/requirements may best be told in story form of a hypothetical Physical Therapist named Emily.

Emily applied for a job at Dakota Grit Physical Therapy and was given the job because she is a super nice person, empathetic towards others, has compassion for people with ankle sprains and strokes alike, is enthusiastic about exercise, and loves making the world a small bit better.

Emily comes to work at 10am today because she has a flexible schedule. Yesterday she treated a highly motivated hockey player at 6AM and it all comes out in the wash. She starts the day off by seeing an elderly patient who was referred by primary care because the patient is very frail and weak. Emily gets the patient going with some gradual strengthening and they have a great 60 minute session together - laughing and exercising. Emilys next patient is a 16 year old track athlete with back pain. The kid is an absolute monster on the 100 yard dash. Hes looking to set some sort of state record because of his speed, but hes seeing Emily because he has a state record for tightest psoas in the state which is likely contributing to his centralized low back pain. She does the Thomas test and its positive for psoas tightness. Emily spends most of her 60 minutes doing soft tissue and vertebral mobilizations.

After Emily completes her two sessions, she has about a 2 hour break before her next patient shows up. She sits down at her desk to write up her documentation. While there, the phone rings. Its a guy named Lou. Hes a fella with neck pain and wondering if he can get in for physical therapy because its killing him - 10/10 pain really, with shooting pain from the neck distally into the first and second digits. Emily sees that her coworker James has an opening tomorrow and schedules Lou to work with James at his next opening.

Emily hangs up and finishes her notes, then eats a nice lunch she packed - salad topped with salmon and a hint of Italian dressing, she also has it topped with tomatoes that one of her patients Betty gave her from her garden. She realizes that she still has some time before her next patient arrives. Being proactive, she realizes that the place could use some tidying up, so she picks up gear adrift and sweeps the floor. After that, she picks up her study guide as she is preparing to take the Geriatrics Specialist Exam in the upcoming cycle.

Emily finishes off her day with three hours of patient care to include: post operative knee replacement with some quadriceps weakness, a vertigo patient who isnt puking today, and a motivated stroke patient. Emily then returns a call to a local Family Care doctor in town regarding a patient she is treating. They have a nice visit and the MD thanks Emily for providing excellent physical therapy care to their mutual patient.

Emily submits her treatment notes for the day, turns the open/closed sign to closed, flicks the lights off, locks the door and leaves the clinic. Today she decides to take a nice a hike after work because she lives in the beautiful Black Hills of South Dakota.

She heads up to Little Elk Creek, as the trailhead is an 18 minute drive from Dakota Grit. Emily gets on the trailhead and sets off. The colors are changing and fall is really a beautiful time to be living in the Black Hills. There are still a few tourists around, but the population drops off quickly as she makes her way through the trail. She decides she has a lot of energy and decides to run the creek until she arrives at Dalton Lake. At Dalton Lake, she sees a couple campers and they offer her a drink - because South Dakota is the friendliest state in the nation. Emily turns and heads back for her car at the Little Elk Creek trailhead.

The next day she arrives at the clinic and her patient load is more of the same variety. Only thing different is her coworker James is now returning from military leave and has been out of the clinic for a couple weeks. He asks Emily for her opinion on Lo s neck pain because he needs a second opinion. They spend 30 minutes researching current concepts and best practices. They agree on some interventions based on a clinical practice guideline they review from the Journal of Orthopedic Physical Therapy.

Emily loves her job because she gets to work with a myriad of patient pathologies. She enjoys working at Dakota Grit Physical Therapy because she doesnt have the hyper driven caseload that comes with corporate healthcare. Emily is compensated on par with the industry standard and enjoys the all the benefits to include health insurance and retirement matching. Emily's continuing education is paid for and she continues to grow professionally.

End story.